First day of teaching.

They pretty much threw me into the lions den.

The tutoring center caters to all levels of english learners. Kindergarden to adults. There are four sets of books the school uses, and within each text there are different levels. From my observation yesterday and today, teaching adults and intermediate students is much easier than beginners (I could have probably guessed that before my observation). With your teenage and adult learners the text books fill the whole class time. They are easy to follow and it's easy with intermediate students to spin off onto other topics or class discussion. Even the "Lounge" class, which is just a free form topic and discussion class is simple. Because the students want to learn, and talk, and practice their English.

Kids on the other hand.... They are a lot of work, especially when they dont speak your language. It's like training a puppy. In fact, one of the kids today was slobbering like a puppy. He had his entire hand in his mouth, then would pull it out and want to touch you with it? Not okay, lay off my Casio calculator watch kid, I know it's cool. They smell like puppies too. The little ones have to take off their shoes (its a carpeted play room) and one of the kids, I didn't care to investigate, had the smelliest socks! Strangely enough, it smelt like Nacho Cheese Doritos, which made me hungry and sick at the same time. Anyways, the lion den. I taught two classes today, and what level you ask? The beginners, the babies. My second class was 3 and 4 year olds. The class is called art and music, and we are supposed to incorporate these into a lesson. As I mentioned, the text books for the intermediate students are self explanatory  The work books for the beginners, not so much! I was to come up with a lesson plan and activities to entertain 4 year olds for 50 minutes. I know, it's not rocket science, but come on! I had never even observed either of the classes that I taught. How was I to know the structure of the class? That's my only gripe. And obviously there is no better way to learn than to just dive in head first and figure it out as you go. I Just felt so unprepared. My teaching as well as my life here will just continue to get better with time! right?